Ex-Lawrence official gets 18-month jail sentence

LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) — The former chief of staff to the ex-mayor of Lawrence has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for corruption.

Leonard Degnan, who worked for ex-Mayor William Lantigua, was also sentenced Thursday to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Degnan, a former interim mayor and a city councilor, was also barred from running for public office.

He was found guilty Monday of bribery, conspiracy, soliciting a bribe and unlawful use of official position for pressuring a city vendor to donate a trash truck to a town in Lantigua’s native Dominican Republic. Degnan allegedly threatened to void the vendor’s contract “without cause” if the garbage truck wasn’t donated.